1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tab for a closure, to a closure comprising such a tab connected to the closure, to a container comprising a closure provided with such tab, and to a process for making such tab.
2) Brief Description of the Prior Art
Containers such as food and beverage cans are provided with a closure which may be opened with a tab connected to the closure. The tab is grasped by the users finger and due to a lever action exerted with the tab, the closure is popped open. Subsequently, part of the closure is pushed in or torn off, thereby making the content of the container available to the user. An example of such a closure is an easy opening end.
Generally, the force required for popping open the closure, the push in force or the tear force are not experienced by the user as excessive and do not interfere with the objective of easy opening the container. However, the initial lifting of the tab out of the plane of the closure over the first millimeters may be considered problematic.
In the art several closures are disclosed in order to improve the initial lifting and subsequent popping and tearing of the closure by the tab.
EP 1,205,392 discloses a tab which is provided with a tab lever formed by a separate flexible operating part such as a plastic strand.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,916,337 discloses a closure of which the tab is provided with an additional pull ring which extends through the tab opening.
JP 2000-128167 discloses a closure having a tab of which the tab body is provided with a crease line around which the lever part of the tab may be articulated thereby improving the grasping of the tab. However, the pop force and tear force will be increased due to the location of the crease line near the center of the tab.